Thought For The Week 7 September 2025

A very warm welcome to our service today especially to the Girls and Boys    Brigade families. The service will include presentation to Fiona Blissett who is a receiving a badge for 40 years’ service to GB; Eamon Carson and Andre Stokes are receiving badges for attending the National Leadership Development Course and being promoted to the rank of Corporal; Miles Hutt is being promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal. Well done to you all for all the hard work and commitment you’ve shown.

Our reading today from Jeremiah 18 raise many questions for us about how God sees and acts towards the nations of the earth. In the ancient world, the fate of nations was attributed to the strength of their gods (which was reflected in the strength of national armies). In the case of Israel, obedience to the covenant with God was the determining factor in the success or failure of the nation and this is what Jeremiah spells out. He spoke at a time of great turmoil when one empire- Assyria- was crumbling and 2 empires- Egypt and Babylon- were vying for domination with Babylon winning out. Israel was caught in the middle of all this.

Our own times are like this; America seems to be retreating from global leadership while China, India and Russia are vying for dominance. A new world order (or is it dis-order?) is spoken about replacing what we have known for the last 80 years. What affect will this have, if any, on our lives and our nation? Will God intervene and ensure justice is done or will we slide towards war and chaos? Jeremaih’s counsel to us is to remain malleable, like soft clay, in the hands of God, and allow God to shape us in the way he wants.

Nga mihi nui,

Brent